Friday, April 30, 2010

Two Out Of FourAin't Bad

by digby

I'm beginning to think the mentally ill might be better off being shot with a gun to subdue them. Their survival rate might be higher:

A 32-year-old Fairfax County man who was in apparent psychiatric distress, died early Friday after being jolted with a Taser charge by an Arlington County officer trying to subdue him inside an apartment where the man was visiting relatives, police said.

It was the second death in a police Taser incident in Arlington this year, coming after a January case in which a District man died shortly after a Taser was used on him at the Pentagon City Metro platform. A final medical examiner's report is pending in the earlier death police said.

Police and medics called to the 5500 block of Columbia Pike at 12:41 a.m. found Adil Jouamai naked and uncooperative, according to police who said Jouamai was combative and ignored commands by officers. An officer deployed a Taser to bring him under control and shortly after, Jouamai did not appear to be breathing, said Lt. William Griffith, a an Arlington police spokesman.

Medics began trying to resuscitate Jouamai and took him to Virgina Hospital Center where he was pronounced dead.

[...]

The incident was the fourth time this year that Arlington police have deployed Tasers, which administer an electric jolt and are designed to be safer than firearms. Two of those confrontations did not involve death or injury, Griffith said.

But on Jan. 17, a 36-year-old District man died after being Tasered during a confrontation with police on the Pentagon City Metro platform.

William R. Bumbrey III allegedly became aggressive when an officer approached him on the Metro platform to question him about a recent theft from a nearby pharmacy, police said. After the officer used his Taser, Bumbrey continued to struggle, police said at the time, but eventually was restrained and handcuffed.

Soon after, officers saw that Bumbrey was in medical distress. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

Hey, tasers only killed people 50% of the time in this department. There's no reason to think there's a problem.